This grass-court season is expected to be marked by Serena Williams’ return to tennis, after her almost a year long absence. The American, who has slipped to No.25 in the rankings from the No.1 where she stood when she last played competitively, plans to participate in the next week's Aegon International and then Wimbledon, where she will be defending her title.

Serena's sister Venus, a five-time Wimbledon champion, is also expected to play the grass-court Grand Slam. The last tournament she played was the 2011 Australian Open in January. Her health problem was a hip injury. Read more »

There was a lot of talk about fashion at the 2010 US Open, especially about the very short Stella McCartney dress Caroline Wozniacki was wearing and Venus Williams’ too movable outfits. The Sony Ericsson WTA Tour dedicated one photo feature to Tracy Austin, that I recently had an interview with, and I came across this very interesting photo showing that exposed shorts are nothing new. I simply had to share the picture of the outfit, because it's so unique and strange. Imagine Wozniacki wearing it today. The photo dates back to the Eastbourne tournament in 1978.

The gallery also featured a photo we could add to our collection of young pictures of women’s tennis players. You can see a 14-year-old Austin playing Chris Evert in the round of 32 at Wimbledon in 1977.

World No.100 Ekaterina Makarova went through three qualifying rounds and then eliminated a lot of big names from the main draw to win her first Sony Ericsson WTA Tour singles title at the Premier-level event of the AEGON International.

Makarova has won eight straight matches this week and each of them without losing a set, including the final against world No.15 Victoria Azarenka, 7-6(5) 6-4. Even though Azarenka was troubled by injury in the title match, nothing can take away the awesome feeling of accomplishment from Makarova, who has not only become the first qualifier to win Eastbourne but can also pride herself on the victories over Flavia Pennetta in the first round, Nadia Petrova in the second, Svetlana Kuznetsova in the quarterfinals and fresh French Open finalist Samantha Stosur in the semis. (photo: Stephane Martinache)

Qualifier at the AEGON International Ekatertina Makarova may have started the semifinal against in-form Samantha Stosur slow, but in the end she sent the third seed packing with a 7-6(5) 7-5 victory.

The 100th-ranked Makarova claimed just four of the first 19 points and fell behind 3-0, 0-40 in the first set against Stosur. The Russian attributed that poor start to the nervousness of playing on the center court. However, Makarova didn’t let the nerves get the best of her and won the first set in a tiebreak. Then, she used one of her four break points in the second set, which gave her enough advantage to defeat Stosur, who will climb to a career-high ranking of No.6 on Monday.

Makarova will play her third career final and try to win her first WTA title. Her final opponent at the AEGON International will be world No.15 Victoria Azarenka. The Belorussian reached the final with a 6-3 7-5 win over eighth seed Marion Bartoli, who has failed to advance beyond the semifinals at Eastbourne  for the fourth straight year. (photo: Stephane Martinache)

Fifth seed Kim Clijsters may have lost just three games and spent just 92 minutes in the victories over Yanina Wickmayer and Lucie Safarova en route to the quarterfinals of the AEGON International , but the Belgian struggled against Victoria Azarenka and lost 7-6(6) 6-4. Azarenka is now 1-2 in career meetings with Clijsters.

Unseeded Azarenka upset fourth seed Agnieszka Radwanska in round one and followed it up with a victory over Heather Watson for her first back-to-back wins in six tournaments.

In other quarterfinal matches of the day in Eastbourne, third seed Samantha Stosur reached her fifth semifinal of the year with a 6-7(5) 6-1 6-0 win over Elena Baltacha, eighth-seeded Marion Bartoli edged Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez 5-7 6-4 7-6(5) and advanced to the semifinals of Eastbourne for the fourth straight year, while the 2004 champion Svetlana Kuznetsova keeps fallings and her latest loss is to qualifier Ekaterina Makarova in straight sets 6-4 7-5. (photo: Stephane Martinache)